Hosting a Hawaiian Luau Party

If you're looking to host your own Hawaiian luau party, here are some fun ideas to help you get started.

1. Invitations - Your perfect Hawaiian luau party begins with invitations. You can keep it simple with basic cards and add some cute Hawaiian stickers or pictures. Something fun that we did was to include a name tag for each friend that displayed their name in Hawaiian.

2. Decorations - There are tons of options out there for cute luau decorations. My favorite website for fun Hawaiian décor is Oriental Trading.

3. Party Favors - You won't want your guests to leave without some fun Hawaiian party favors. You can go the traditional route with Hawaiian leis or find other fun ways to represent your Hawaiian evening.

4. Drinks - There are lots of fun ideas for drinks. My favorite is a berry pina colada punch. I combine any kind of pina colada drink mix with a berry juice concentrate and add some pineapple slices for fun.

5. Appetizers - You can find plenty of recipes for great Hawaiian luau appetizers and side dishes. I love using recipe sites like Betty Crocker. One of my party favorites is coconut, pineapple, and macadamia scones. You can find the recipe on the Betty Crocker website.

6. Main Course - I like to keep my food easy, so my favorite main dish for a Hawaiian luau party is Hawaiian haystacks. You can throw these together with whatever toppings you like. I make them with rice, chicken, cream of chicken soup, cheese, pineapple, and green peppers. There are also plenty of recipes for more traditional foods that you can find online. Try hawaiianrecipes.org or hawaii.edu.

7. Dessert - My favorite dessert is pineapple upside down cake. This cake is really delicious and easy to make. I start with a basic yellow cake mix and add a brown sugar syrup and pineapple. You can also find pineapple upside down cake mixes that are really simple and only require you to add the eggs, oil, and pineapple.

8. Music - Add the right mood to your Hawaiian luau with some traditional Hawaiian music. If you don't have any CDs on hand, try your local library.

9. Picture slideshow - If you've been to Hawaii, a fun idea is to have a slideshow of vacation pictures or show other items that you brought back with you. If you've never been, you could find Hawaii pictures online and make a slideshow that plays in the background on your computer.

10. Hawaiian DVD - Another fun idea that I've used for parties is to show a DVD about Hawaii. I love to get documentaries that include lots of beautiful Hawaiian scenery and fun facts about the culture and history.